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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 466734" data-attributes="member: 79">Returning to Bugaisha, the group settled into their usual routine.  Kaz and Toshiro were back on duty and assigned to winter patrols.  Verick returned to his training with Akodo-sensei, rigorous work not only in kendo but etiquette and calligraphy.  “Don’t think the ability to write properly is only for courtiers!”  Akodo Setei stated “As an Akodo you will train to lead battles.  Your handwriting must be neat!  It would not do to lose a battle because someone could not understand your writing or you worded an order poorly!”  The training was harsh but Verick buckled down very seriously and worked hard.Volar checked in with his sole student, Chen, and found that the monk’s keeping an eye on the Red Wizards had gone well enough.  Chen has a list of what was sold at the Red Wizard’s shop.  He also reported that they were not very helpful or polite to those visiting the shop.  As a result, they sold relatively little and were largely ignored, a position that apparently suited them very well.Mindra visited the temple to meet Iuchi Nagatori, a respected scholar at the temple.  Nagatori had prepared a few scrolls with information on the Naga.  How they had awakened just before the Clan Wars and played a role in later battles with minions of the Shadowlands as well as the Lying Darkness, a force of Oblivion that had tried to erase everything.  Nagatori also made mention that a Naga had married a Dragon clan samurai and they had a child, though far away at the Imperial Capital, Otosan Uchi.  Closer to home, a young woman named Akasha had been born from a large golden pearl, a gift to the Unicorn from the Naga.  Nagatori also made a point of asking about Mir, revealing he had looked at her with Spirit Sight and she had an aura he had never seen on someone from the Western Kingdoms.  Mindra didn’t really have the information Nagatori was looking for but he was willing to answer many questions on the Vanara and what they were like.Mindra made notes, very interested in meeting these people that had crossed the boundaries between Human and Naga.   Lost in thought as the amiable monkey walked home, he was startled as a workman in a plain kimono flagged him down “Hey, you’re Mindra, right?  That monkey that hangs around Hiruma Toshiro-sama?  You wouldn’t be interested in a little work, would you?  I had a worker turn up injured and I need someone to work on the roof.  And...well...you being a monkey and all, you have to be a great climber and all.  It’s good, honest work!”Mindra was so taken off guard by this offer he was speechless for a moment.  Then he got curious…he’d been given the Coin of Ebisu, Fortune of Honest Hard Work.  Perhaps there was something more to this offer.  And besides, he didn’t have anything better to do…Meanwhile Mir was at her grove, training with Brakkus in the arts of the Mystic Wanderer, and when that was done she managed to convince the old druid to cast a Hallow over the area as well, further protection in case those Bloodspeakers still hoped to use her grove for their ritual.Kaz meanwhile continued on his quest to show Toshiro how a real Crab lives.  Fight hard when the time comes.  Party the rest of the time.  But the holder of the Coin of Bishamon, Fortune of Strength, was starting to find himself challenged to duels, sometimes at rather inconvenient times.Volar’s training with Chen was going as well as could be expected.  It was obvious the massive monk would reach a point where the spells were simply to complex for him at some point, but for now he was finally learning to cast first level spells with skill.Volar was one of many stopping in the street to watch Mindra at work, the carpenter monkey drawing quite a lot of attention and not all just curious.  Before he had always been a strange creature no one could quite trust.  But if he was willing to work and make a place for himself in Bugaisha, maybe he wasn’t so bad.  It was just after pausing to watch Mindra at work that Volar was approached by a ronin bearing the mon of the White Fan ronin brotherhood.  The young man was interested in Western ways of enhancing items with magic.  More specifically, he was interested in if Volar could make such items for him.  This was an area Volar had never really studied in detail but an idea occurred to him.“I’m accepting students, why don’t you or someone from your brotherhood join my school?  I only have one student at the moment so it’s a good time to get involved.  You could learn the magic used for enchanting items.”  Volar suggested.The ronin was a bit surprised but seemed to find the idea intriguing.  Of course, such training was very rare and specialized, Volar would explain. And the young ronin clearly got the hint.  By the next morning Volar had a new student, a White Fan ronin named Kuroko.  And he was finding ‘gifts’ left for him, though in a few cases it was obvious it had belonged to someone else and at those times he made sure to return them.Out at Mir’s grove, the previous carpenters (found to have Bloodspeaker links) had been replaced with a new group hired to build the shrine to the Oak Father as well as a tree house in one of the oaks for Mir’s residence.  Much to Mir’s surprise, Mindra was one of the workers assigned to building at her grove.  As the foreman explained “He’s a great climber and a good little worker.  And he’s got a real way with wood, a real way.”  No great surprise, since Mindra was using his spirit powers to help his carpentry.  Mir was so surprised by Mindra’s sudden new career she even stealthily cast a detect magic then checked the Vanara out, just to make sure there was no magic influencing him to become a carpenter.[DM Note:  Mindra's gotten teased quite a bit over becoming a carpenter.  I was a little surprised he accepted the job offer, really.  But it's made things interesting.  Mindra's even put some ranks into carpentry now.]“I’ve not really been doing anything before.”  Mindra would explain “Just sitting around Toshiro’s house.  This gives me something to do when we aren’t busy with more pressing matters.”Toshiro had also been busy with patrols.  But there was nothing exciting going on until Shinjo O-Hisa returned from her mission to the rebel village to brighten his day.  She greeted him with an enthusiastic kiss and the story of her battles in the rebel village, and the spellcaster she fought he was no normal Bloodspeaker, he had used spells that sounded like Volar’s.  This was news to share with Volar later though, for that evening the O-Hisa went into more detail on her bloody victory over the bakemono warlord while Toshiro talked about the group’s Great Northern Adventure.[DM Note:  Samurai love.  A jug of wine, a severed head, and thou.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />]That night after O-Hisa had left, Toshiro was awakened by a fiery glow.  Bolting out of bed to look out the window he saw Bugaisha in flames.  The shambling zombies were everywhere as flames leapt from building to building.  Only the Temple of the Seven Fortunes was spared, a figure standing on top of it, his arms lifted as corrupt magic arced outward from him over the city.Turning away to grab his sword, Toshiro found himself suddenly in the living room of his house.  His friends were seated around the table but unmoving.  Mir and his girlfriend, Shinjo O-Hisa were facing him and behind them, shrouded in shadows, was the dark figure he had seen on the temple.  At the command of the dark figure O-Hisa leapt for Toshiro, a dagger in her hand.  Unable to move a muscle, Toshiro could only watch as the steel sank into his chest….Toshiro awake covered in sweat, his heart racing, the dream so vivid in his mind.  Too vivid, even the stabbing pain in his chest remaining.  He looked down and to his shock saw the front of his kimono was stained in blood!  The spot where O-Hisa had stabbed him in the dream showed a shallow wound, still bleeding.Toshiro quickly summoned his friends and explained the dream to them, and was healed of the wound.  No one was quite sure what the dream meant, except that there was obviously a threat to Bugaisha.  Maybe the temple would be a final refuge, but there were other, more sinister possibilities.  While the group was discussing and speculating, the Oba-san of Toshiro’s house entered to let them know that with the dawn, a guest had arrived.  Shinjo Yuji, Lord Jyaku’s assistant left in charge of Bugaisha.After some pleasantries over morning tea, Yuji revealed his reason for visiting so unexpectedly was that someone had been talking about Toshiro in the Red Lantern district of Bugaisha.  “You have to understand, running a town like this requires a lot of information.  So Jyaku-sama has people who pass along interesting information when it comes up.  In this case someone at a sake house was talking about having to meet Toshiro, to warn him that a new crime boss was moving into Mimura.  He seemed to think you were involved in the crime scene there and you needed to be told.  Do you have any idea why he would think this, Toshiro-san?”Toshiro had no idea, though Volar did.  He had nearly forgotten the seeds he had planted about Toshiro being a secret criminal boss.  Now that it was turning up again, he wasn’t going to say a thing…“I have no idea.  I’d like to talk to this man though, and find out what is going on.”  Toshiro said angrily.Yuji frowned and nodded “That’s why I came to see you, Toshiro-san.  I sent someone around to collect him. but he was found dead this morning…”</blockquote>

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